Friday, July 11, 2014

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

Burma Business Weekly

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 05:14 AM PDT

Ups and Downs

The Burmese currency strengthened slightly, with the buying rate finishing on Friday at 968 kyat, down from 971 the week before; while the selling rate dropped to 973 kyat from 979 last week. However, the price of gold jumped up this week to 682,000 kyat per tical from 678,300 kyat the week before. Fuel prices remained the same, with petrol selling at 820 kyat per litre, diesel at 950 kyat per litre, and octane at 920 kyat per litre. The price of rice also did not fluctuate, with high-quality pawhsanmwe rice selling for 1,300 to 1,700 kyat per basket at most Rangoon markets and low-quality Manawthukha rice going for 900 kyat per basket.

 

Industry Ministry slammed for incurring $200m loss

Burma's Ministry of Industry came under fire from MPs in parliament on Thursday for accumulating a loss of 190 billion kyat (US$200 million) over the last year. A Ministry spokesperson explained that losses were due to a cut in demand for agricultural equipment, the suspension of a paper mill and a factory, and a delay in recuperating fertiliser revenues. However, MP Khin Shwe claimed that the privatisation of profitable sectors – such as breweries, cigarette factories and soft drinks production – was the real reason for the losses.

 

Burmese govt plans for six dry ports in Rangoon, Mandalay

Myanma Railways is planning to build six dry ports in Rangoon and Mandalay to meet the expected increase of goods after the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, the New Light of Myanmar reported on Friday. According to a presentation given by Myanmar Railways deputy general manager, Aung Myo Myint, the sites for dry ports in Rangoon are Kwayt Ma, Ywathagyi and Danyingone; while the sites in Mandalay are at Myoth Haung, Myitnge and Paleik. A public tendering process to develop these ports will be announced soon, and construction should begin in November, he added.

 

Rolls-Royce to assist Burmese engineering group in Rangoon power plant

German industrial firm Rolls-Royce Power Systems signed a long-term service agreement with RGK+Z&A, a Burmese engineering group, on Monday to provide spare parts, maintenance and technical assistance to the Hlawga power plant in Rangoon. According to a Rolls-Royce statement released on Monday, the agreement was inked in London by Khin Maung Soe, the minister of electric power. Hlawga power plant is expected to generate 25 megawatts of electricity and will deliver it to Rangoon's residents.

 

Yoma, Mitsubishi ink deal on Bridgestone tyres

Through its subsidiary Myanmar Motors, Yoma Strategic Holdings will begin working with Mitsubishi Corporation to provide sales support for Bridgestone tyres in Burma, according to a statement released by Yoma on Tuesday. Mitsubishi will hold 70 percent of the shares for this joint venture, while the remaining 30 percent is to be held by First Myanmar Investment Co Ltd – a subsidiary of Myanmar Motors.

 

Burmese budget to be more transparent, says Finance Ministry

Burma will be more transparent in how the national budget is allocated, Deputy Minister for Finance Lin Aung said on Monday during a parliamentary session. According to state-run media, the Burmese government is working with the World Bank to develop a more transparent and open budget allocation process so that the public will know how their taxes are being used, Lin Aung said.

 

Burma nets $3.5 billion in latest gem sales

Burma's latest official sale of gems, jade and pearls brought in US$3.5 billion, a record high for the mineral-rich country, according to Myanmar Business Today. "Total process from the sale of jade, pearl and gems like ruby and sapphire … amounted to over 2.6 billion euros [about $3.54 billion], exceeding our expectations and hitting a record high," said Win Htein, a director general at the Ministry of Mines. Last year's sales amounted to about $2.6 billion.

 

With influx of new job seekers, unemployment in Rangoon remains high

While the number of employed people in Rangoon is expected to increase by more than 30 percent in 2013, the unemployment rate remains unflaggingly high, according to the Myanmar Business Today. Figures released by the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security show that 100,000 people are expected get new jobs by the end of 2014. Yet unemployment is still rampant, due to the lack of opportunities and a lack of knowledge by job hunters about the work available.

 

Unity verdict slammed at home and abroad

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 05:04 AM PDT

International condemnation of the Burmese government was swift and scathing in the wake of a Magwe court's decision on Thursday to sentence four reporters and the CEO of Unity Weekly journal to ten years in prison with hard labour after being convicted of revealing state secrets.

The media workers were arrested for publishing an investigative report in January alleging that a military facility in the central Burmese town of Pauk was used for the production of chemical weapons.

Amnesty International said it was a "dark day for freedom of expression" in Burma, while Reporters Sans Frontières referred to the sentencing as a "grave setback for press freedom" in the country.

And in Sala Baganza, a small town in central Italy that recently bestowed honorary citizenship on the Unity staffers, Mayor Cristina Merusi said her townsfolk were "stunned and incredulous" by news of the sentence.

In Burma, where observers have in recent months observed a noticeable backsliding on media freedom by the Thein Sein government, reaction was more muted with several civic society groups expressing little surprise at the decision to convict but alarm at the severity of the sentence.

Speaking to DVB on Thursday, Rupert Abbot, the deputy director of Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific programme, said, "This is a very dark day for freedom of expression in Myanmar [Burma]. Today's sentences expose a hollowness to the government's promises to improve the human rights situation in the country. They reflect a wider crackdown on free media since the turn of the year, despite government assurances that such practices would end."

His sentiments were echoed by international press watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

"CPJ is alarmed that journalists were tried under a 100-year-old spying statute and slammed with an outrageously harsh sentence,” said Asia program coordinator Bob Dietz. "This conviction should shatter any illusions that President Thein Sein’s government grasps the role of a free press in a democracy. The international community should act quickly to not only get this decision reversed, but to impress upon the government that its anti-media stance will jeopardize future economic assistance.”

Fellow media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontières was equally critical.

"This decision by the Magway [Magwe] court is a grave setback for press freedom," said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the organisation's Asia-Pacific desk. "Progress had been made, but this case marks a return to a dark time when journalists and bloggers who did their job were jailed on national security charges or for allegedly trying to overthrow the government."

On Friday, Gayathry Venkiteswaran, the executive director of the Southeast Asia Press Alliance, said, "We find that the use of the law in the guise of national security is a major threat to the journalist community, so it is really uncalled for – the level of harsh sentencing that was given yesterday. We are very disturbed by this."

At home, Zaw Thet Htwe of the Interim Press Council said that the verdict could be taken as an indication that all media are at risk of prosecution in Burma "at any time".

"The government will not tolerate us touching upon issues about the nation, about government policy or politics," he said.

Ko Jimmy of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society called the 10-year sentence an "extremely harsh punishment", while Ko Ni, a Rangoon High Court lawyer, called the verdict "a bit too harsh".

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"In my opinion, even if the Unity staff were guilty of the charges, the court should have considered a lighter punishment since this was their first offense, and it was only recently that we found out that the facility in question was actually designated as a prohibited area under the Official Secrets Acts," said the lawyer.

Lower House MP Ye Htun was a lone voice in siding with the court verdict.

"While I acknowledge Unity journal's responsibility to inform the public, they should also have considered what the law says – that the press must not report on issues prohibited by law on grounds of national security or to avoid civilian unrest," he said. "They must abide by a code of ethics."

While on trial, the five accused media workers were presented in absentia with honorary citizenship in the central Italian town of Sala Baganza, near Parma.

News that the five – reporters Lu Maw Naing, Sithu Soe, Aung Thura and Yazar Oo, and CEO Tint Hsan – had been sentenced to a decade with hard labour "leaves the people of Sala Baganza stunned and incredulous," said the town's mayor, Cristina Merusi.

"We believe in law and democracy, and are compelled to request an explanation from the Myanmar authorities on a ruling that goes beyond all horizons," she said in an open letter. "We express the solidarity of the entire community to our fellow residents, and request that this verdict be revised immediately by the court."

An additional statement by Giuseppe Malpeli, president of the Burma-Italy Friendship Association, condemned the Magwe court's decision as a "boulder on the path of democratic transition in Myanmar". The group further called on the Italian president to cancel an upcoming EU-ASEAN meeting scheduled to take place in Milan in view of the severity of the verdict.

A day before the final hearing of the Unity Weekly trial on 30 June, operations at the news journal ceased due to financial problems.

"We told our staff members that we are going out of operation for financial reasons," said a company administrator. "The trial has been wearing us thin so we had to make this decision."

Meanwhile, as media focus has landed on the fate of the Unity Five, the original report that the Burmese military was operating a secret weapons facility, consisting of underground tunnels on more than 3,000 acres of land in Magwe Division, has largely been forgotten.

Unity Weekly reported that the Burmese government rejected the allegations; however, local villagers cited in the report said Chinese technicians were frequently seen at the facility and that its workers told reporters they were producing chemical weapons.

Karen armed groups united to combat illicit drugs

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 04:45 AM PDT

Leaders from six Karen armed groups have formed a task force in order to combat drug use and production in the eastern Burmese state.

The Karen National Union (KNU), Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), Karen Peace Force (KPF) and Border Guard Force (BGF) met at the BGF's headquarters in Shaw Koke Ko Myaing township in Myawaddy on 8 July.

They formed an anti-narcotic joint-committee and aim to introduce a drug-eradication programme by 15 July.

Col Saw Paw Doh, a battalion commander in the KNU's armed wing Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), said the committee was formed at the request of civilians living in the state who are concerned about widespread drug use among young people.

"After this meeting, we will start taking action, and so I would like to advise those who are in the drug business to stop at once what they are doing," he said.

Three representatives from each of the six armed groups will sit on the committee.

Alongside a drug-eradication programme, the task force say they will built two detention centres, one in Shwe Koke Ko Myaing and one in Hpa-an District, to incarcerate those charged with drug offences.

"Today we formed a joint-committee tasked with eradicating drugs and I would like to urge all the Karen youth and armed groups to assist with our efforts," said Col Saw Chit Thu, BGF commander and chairman of the anti-narcotic joint-committee.

Karen State has been plagued by the effects of drug production for decades and as general trade with Thailand continues to increase, opportunities for drug smuggling have risen with it. Border crossings between Karen State and Thailand are a major gateway for the international trade of methamphetamine pills in particular, which also make there way into local towns.

Nan Khin Htwe Myint, the National League for Democracy's Karen state chairperson, said the party has been receiving complaints from the public as to the rising drug problems of six of seven townships in eastern Burma.

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"We received letters of complaint from members of the public about drug problems in almost every township [in Karen State]. We learnt that there are drug manufacturing businesses in Myawaddy while young students at schools in six of seven townships in the region are badly addicted to drugs," she said.

According to the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), methamphetamines, or ya-ba, are so widely available that pills are openly sold in small shops in Karen villages, which the group says is responsible and will lead to addiction and mental health problems.

And with drug addiction comes crime, says KHRG, who has documented multiple drug-related killings in the area.

Significantly implicated in that crime, say KHRG, are the ethnic armed groups themselves, despite each army's stated efforts to quash the drug trade.

The Karen BFG, a group of ethnic militiamen under government control, are "primarily responsible for the production and sale of drugs, and for drug related violence," according to KHRG.

DKBA leader Na Kham Mwe has a bounty placed on his capture by the Thai government for his alleged role in cross-border methamphetamines trafficking.

The villagers that appealed for a greater clampdown will hope that the unified effort may stem the flow of illicit drugs and the social problems that go with it.

President’s Office claims Facebook will help monitor hate speech

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 04:09 AM PDT

A President Office's official claimed on Wednesday that the Burmese government has reached an agreement with social media website Facebook to monitor hate speech that could instigate racial and religious violence in the country.

Zaw Htay, director of the President's Office, said that government officials, IT experts from a Silicon Valley company, and three Facebook representatives based in Washington, Ireland and Asia held a conference call recently to discuss the issue of monitoring hate speech.

"The first part of the agreement is to prevent instigation of riots and moderate posts in accordance to Facebook's policies," Zaw Htay said. "We also discussed monitoring, but not in a way that would impose restrictions on Facebook users.

"They recommended enacting a cyber law to moderate the use of social media, but that may take some time," he added.

On 1 July, riots broke out in Mandalay because of rumours circulating on Facebook that a Buddhist girl had been raped by two Muslim teashop owners – an allegation that has not been substantiated. Two people – a Buddhist man and a Muslim man – were subsequently murdered in mob killings.

Zaw Htay said that on the second day of the riots, the government reached out to Facebook, which assisted them in deactivating accounts believed to be spreading hate speech.

However, a spokeswoman from Facebook clarified in an email on Friday that Facebook does not moderate or monitor content. If users report that there is content violating the company's terms of use, Facebook will review it and take it down, she said.

"We regularly talk to governments around the world to address questions or concerns that have about our policies, just as we have with the Government of Myanmar," said the Facebook spokeswoman in an email. "As we have explained to them, Facebook does not permit hate speech and will not tolerate any content that attacks others based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition."

She added that no proposed cyber law was suggested to the Burmese government.

"We did not suggest anything – we simply talked about our approach to content that violates our terms and explained how the process works," she said.

Ko Ni, a High Court attorney in Rangoon, said that the individuals instigating riots on the social media, if found, can be charged under existing laws.

"The instigators can be charged sufficiently under the existing laws but the problem here is that they are not being charged," said Ko Ni. "Not only on Facebook, but some people were instigating riots in person right on the streets, distributing leaflets – but none of them were charged."

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While Thaung Su Nyein, the CEO of IT consultant company Information Matrix, as well as the editor-in-chief of 7Day Daily, lauded the government's efforts to stop hate speech from circulating on the Internet, but noted that he was concerned about any "ulterior motives".

"The government shouldn't be allowed to use this as a tool to oppress or suppress dissent or a public voice or the media. So there are definitely some concerns that it might lead to that, and we have to be careful," he said, adding that the government and civil society organisations should be working harder to educate the public not to engage in hate speech.

"I think it has the potential to be a positive step in getting rid of extremely foul language, extremely hateful speech, extremely offensive content – which, if it were written in English, would have been removed immediately or at least reported by users," Thaung Su Nyein said. "If it can go in that direction, then I am all for it."

According to statistics by the government's Myanmar Post and Telecommunication, there are around 2.5 million Internet users in Burma including 1 million Facebook account holders.

Bullet Points

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 03:53 AM PDT

On today’s edition of Bullet Points:

Leaders from several Karen armed groups are teaming up to fight drug production and use in Karen State.

Ceasefire group, the Shan State Progress Party has reported a surge in incursions by Burmese battalions, into areas controlled by their armed wing.

Thousands of people turn out at temples across Burma to celebrate the beginning of Vassa – or Buddhist lent.

Myanma Railways has announced the construction of six dry ports across Rangoon and Mandalay.

 

Watch Bullet Points on DVB TV after the 7 o’clock news.

Lawyers appeal murder charges in case of Muslim pilgrims lynching

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 12:09 AM PDT

Seven Buddhists charged for their participation in the murder of 10 Muslim pilgrims in Arakan State town of Taunggup in June 2012 are appealing against their indictment.

The district court in Sandoway, officially known as Thandwe, indicted the seven for murder in May this year under Penal Code articles 302 and 34.

Defence lawyers Aye Nu Sein, representing six of the group, and Kyaw Nyunt Maung; who represents the other, submitted an appeal against the charges on Thursday.

"I presented an argument at the high court today stating that the charges against my clients are not in conformity with legal procedures, and so should be dropped," said Aye Nu Sein.

The Arakanese Regional High Court is due to pass a decision on the appeal within seven to ten days.

In an incident that was one of the main precursors of the communal violence erupting in Arakan State, in early June 2012 hundreds of people in Taunggup dragged ten individuals off a bus filled with Muslim pilgrims and beat them to death. The bus was then set ablaze as members of the mob urinated on the victims.

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The attack was sparked by an incident the month before when three men, two of whom were assumed to be Muslim, were accused of raping and murdering a local Buddhist woman. Two of the suspects were sentenced to death while the third committed suicide in prison.

Arakanese police originally arrested 30 persons in connection with the lynching of the 10 Muslim pilgrims. However, eye-witnesses reported that local police in Taunggup stood by and watched as the lynch mob murdered the pilgrims.

Two Burmese nationals murdered in Malaysia

Posted: 10 Jul 2014 10:37 PM PDT

Two Burmese nationals were murdered in separate incidents in the Malaysian cities of Puchong and Butterworth this week.

While the deaths of the two Burmese nationals – Tony, 40, and Myo Paing, 50 – are not directly linked to the recent Mandalay riots, a representative of a Burmese community group in Malaysia noted that in recent times, communal violence in Burma has regularly been followed closely by revenge killings of Burmese nationals in Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country.

It is not yet apparent which religion or religions the two men followed, nor whether their murders were in any way related to communal tensions in their home country.

Their deaths come days after Mandalay Division was rocked with communal violence. In Chan Aye Tharzan Township, two men – one Muslim and one Buddhist – were killed by mobs during two nights of riots.

On 7 July, Tony  was found dead in Butterworth, Penang. Two days later, Myo Paing was hacked to death by a group of unidentified men in Puchong, about 20 kilometres south of Kuala Lumpur. Myo Paing, who has resided in Malaysia for roughly 25 years, had attended the funeral of Tony earlier that day.

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According to San Win, chairman of Burmese community group Kepong Free Funeral Assistance Organisation, an eyewitness said that Myo Paing was walking home around 9pm at night when six men drove up on motorbikes and proceeded hack at him with long blades.

San Win said that killings of Burmese nationals in Malaysia following communal riots in Burma has become a regular pattern, and he called on the Burmese embassy in Malaysia to pressure the authorities to arrest the perpetrators.

"In the last year, about nine people have been killed but not a single case was resolved; not a single arrest has been made," San Win said. "We hope the Burmese government and the embassy in Kuala Lumpur will pressure the Malaysian Home Affairs Ministry to investigate these murders."

The Burmese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur released a statement on 10 July saying that it had learnt that Burmese nationals in Malaysia were being targeted with violence by some "extremist groups".

In its statement, the embassy said, "We have met with the relative officials at the Malaysian Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs ministries and security organisations. We urged them to protect Burmese nationals and immediately identify and take action against the assailants."

Malaysian Home Ministry spokeswoman Fadzelette Othman Merican said investigations for the two cases were ongoing, and declined to comment further.
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